[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
Skunk, You are probably right. I will copy a few gig of flac music on one of my harddrives when I travel and then play them with 2 speakers. The speakers you refer to see pretty bit for a traveller. I guess I will use my headset mainly and the speakers only to share music and for the wake up call. Who has had experiences with a FLAC compatible portable music player with minimum 30 GB of Disk or more. Any suggestions? -- klausbgva klausbgva's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=641 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
There is no way in heck you are going to be able to detect the difference between a VBR 256Kbit mp3 (or even much lower, like 160) with small powered speakers connected to the analog output of a laptop. That's just not physically possible. Just rip a copy of your library to high bitrate VBR mp3 with lame and use that. Any blind test comparing flac to such an mp3 is never going to reveal the slightest difference through speakers so small. Anyone who tells you differently has obviously not done a blind test. I have 18400+ tracks that takes up over half a terabyte in flac also ripped to less than 100Gigs as 128kbit AAC, which sounds just fine for any non-critical listening. OK, so I can't fit my entire library on a 60gig ipod, but it comes awfully close. Compared to the expense and hassle of trying to build an audio platform into my suitcase, I'd take the ipod every time (especially for the airplane listening factor). We're talking about tunes to listen to while sacking out in a hotel room, not some kind of audiophile review. -- ideasculptor ideasculptor's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3305 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
ideasculptor Wrote: There is no way in heck you are going to be able to detect the difference between a VBR 256Kbit mp3 (or even much lower, like 160) with small powered speakers connected to the analog output of a laptop. I agree, as long as it's analog out. There are lots of setups using laptops where the difference would be obvious. People with those setups probably wouldn't have a squeezebox though... -- Skunk Skunk's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2685 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
ideasculptor, You are absolutely right for my travelling I will get a mobile player and some really small powered speakers. Regarding sound quality. I just did a blind test on my bathroom slimbox with small creative powered speakers and on the kitchen slimbox with some cheap (they will have to go) 15$ lab tech speakers. My wife did change the songs and I could not see the display. Reslut in the Bath room I could tell the diference every single time In the Kitchen I was accurate 70% of the time I used the following albums to test : Made in heaven form Queen Carmen Fantasie Anne Sophie Mutter (Deutsche Gramophon) The CD's are all encoded to flac transcoded them to 256VBR MP3 for the test Did test some other pop Track where I could not tel the difference for most of them -- klausbgva klausbgva's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=641 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
A nice-sounding powered speaker is the Tivoli iPal. It's basically an AM/FM radio with a rechargable battery and a single high-end 2.5 speaker. It has a stereo headphone jack and an inupt jack to handle an iPod (or SB). The tuner in this thing is better than the one in many modern receivers. It pulls in tons of stations and locks on without drift. We use it out in the yard with FM or an iPod and it sounds great. The lack of stereo speakers doesn't matter much - with most small powered speakers, you don't get much separation anyway. The amp and speaker in the iPal sound clean, clear, and (dare I say it?) rich. It sounds better than many big boomboxes with cheap ear-bleeding speakers. It's kind of pricey at $150, but this is a quality unit that will last for many years, and it's something you'd actually want to listen to. The rechargable battery is supposedly good for up to 16 hours, though I've never come close to verifying that claim. It's fine for hotel listening and would work great with a SB in a net-connected hotel room. Use it with SqueezeNetwork for internet radio, the live archive, or the sleep-inducing ocean/rain/cricket sounds. Good alarm clock, too. -- Pale Blue Ego Pale Blue Ego's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=110 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
I'm an iPal user myself. It's a class bathroom radio and you can charge it up and take it away for the weekend with your iPod. Stereo separation where the speakers are only a foot or two apart is worthless so you'd be better off with a quality mono speaker. As for detecting the difference between 128kbps QuickTime AAC and FLAC, it's damn difficult even on good speakers. Try a proper ABX test if you don't beleive me (visit Hydrogenaudio for test setup details). Retro Fi :) -- fairyliquidizer fairyliquidizer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3678 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
I've got a pair of tivoli radios, a radio one and the stereo one (radio 2 I think). I'm not too impressed with the sound quality. I have a Boston Acoustics clock radio on my nightstand, and it sounds a whole lot better to my ears. No line in on the boston radio though. For travel, I use my iPOD with a set of etymotic research headphones, and it's hard to beat. Small size and the earphones block out the airplane noise. On my electrostatic speaks, I can hear the difference between high bit rate VBR lame and either flac or the original CD, but the differences are surprisingly small. Fraunhoffer vs flac is much more obvious. This arguement is much like TIFF vs low compression JPEG, there are differences, but it takes some scrutinizing to see it. I use lame encoded MP3's on my pod, and based on my looking, there is really no other portable player out there of any merit. I use MP3's rather than lossless on the pod because I'd rather than a larger music library rather than a smaller one. I never know what I'll be in the mood for. IF my pod didn't have enough space for enough music, I'd compress more, rather than suffer with a smaller library especially when traveling. Sheldon -- stokessd stokessd's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3470 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
I have to agree that I'm not sure that I can see the advantage in bringing the SB. Could you explain your reasoning a little please? -- fairyliquidizer fairyliquidizer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3678 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
OK I know I can do it with the Laptop. The built -in speakers are not the best to listen when more than 2 feet away. When on the laptop I have my BO headset and the sound is as good as the wireless will allow it. If I take a pair of speakers along they must be powered and need to connect to the power outlet (which means another adapter). I was considereing the option of the Slimbox because that way the laptop can stay off or do some other wrok which is very ressource hungry. To leave the laptop on all night as a an alarm clock is very noisy,... I would still have to run all over the hotel to cable the whole stuff. Embeded in the suitcase the slimbox display would be visible when the case is on a table or bed. The speakers would be inside the Suitcase. I would run a single powercable and wire all the stuff in the case. Call me lazy if you want but that would be the easiest for me. I would prbably also embede a charger for my cell phone. -- klausbgva klausbgva's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=641 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Slimbox for travellers
What about just connecting to squeezenetwork? No laptop needed, just the SB and some powered speakers -- Pale Blue Ego Pale Blue Ego's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=110 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20756 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
